***edit: I finally finished this, on Nov. 15th. the last half of the trip is on page three.***

I hadn't ridden a curvy road in exactly a year. That realization was hugely depressing.

To add to the frustration, I'd lived within 2 days of the best street riding in Canada for 4 years and never been there. My expatriate assignment up here could end any time now, and I decided that leaving Canada without having ridden the Kootenays is unacceptable.

So I posted a thread in Regionals and got started planning my trip to southeastern British Columbia. Lots of good advice was given, rooms were offered, and I was ready to get on with it. That thread is a good preview to the trip.

Plan was to leave Friday morning to make the short 5-hour trek to Edmonton to stay with curbjumper and catch up with some people there. I got fairly wasted at our last slowpitch game of the year Thursday night and had to pack everything while hungover Friday morning.

Eventually, I was ready to hit the road.

I spent 45 minutes travelling the 30 minutes thru Lloydminster, AB road construction. Thank you, flip face helmet: I was able to eat the roast beef and provolone sandwich I packed for lunch while duckwalking the bike the length of town.

I eventually made it to the Shell station just west of Elk Island park, got ahold of curbjumper, and headed to his place. The Anthony Henday highway that loops around Edmonton the south is a blessing. Made it to his place with plenty of time to relax, BS, go out for chinese, lube the chain, and drink beer. Rob1313 and aj226 stopped by for a bit. Everyone kept asking me when I was getting a new rear tire... It looked ok to me. I wasn't planning on using the middle for the rest of the trip anyway.

Good to see you guys.

Next morning had a quick breakfast and started the ride west. curbjumper let me ride his Ducati for a bit, and I had a hard time wiping the smile off my face. That literbike torque is addicting, even on a short ride.

We switched back to our respective bikes, and I got an escort to the edge of town. Many thanks to curby and his wife for the hospitality - a short ride to a comfy destination to park in a garage is a great way to start a long road trip.

That was the first of 9 days, and served only to whet my appetite for more and better riding.

I headed south on 2 from Edmonton, planning to go west to Saskatchewan River crossing, ride 1A, then take 93 to Radium and south.

Edmonton to Red Deer - nothing much to report, though I used an H3 as a blocker (smokey and bandit style) to run 130 for the majority of it.

Between Rocky Mountain House and the lake pictured below, I fell in with a rider on a GSX650F for a while. He almost got taken out by a two-up bagger when he pulled out to pass them, as they pulled out to pass a motorhome. I hate watching that from 30ft back and not being able to do anything.

The little lookout over the lake toward Mt. Michener was as beautiful as I remembered, and the temps were climbing as it was late morning and we were in the bright Alberta sun.

edit: lets try that again too.

From the lookout spot thru Sask River Crossing to Lake Louise was a bit of a downer. I remembered it as more fun and prettier... 1A is still great but I don't run that pace alone very often, and there were far more bicyclists and pedestrians in late Aug than my previous trip just after Labour day in Sep.

From 1A I circled back to 93 and headed south to Invermere. I love long sweepers. Wick it up to 140 and go. A pic from the Kootenay river:

I went thru Invermere and kept going south, with no plan in mind. I hate resort towns, not stopping in Fairmont. I had a tent, and wanted to use it, so I rode around, hoping to see a campground. Thought there might be one in Canal Plains. There was not.

There was a campground in the provincial park in Wasa, but it was full, and I almost ran over the same small family thrice due to one-ways I was looping looking for a site.

Kimberley looks like a great little town but the highway95A (main drag thru town) was wet loose mud and gravel and I just got the heck out of there.

Looked at the GPS - it was getting close to the hour of the hooved forest rat, so I noted Cranbrook was close, and just booked it there on 93. Lookeed around, saw a Days Inn and called it a day.

Lemongrass Thai in the best western across the street was decent, if not authentic. I snapped this pic on the way back from dinner:

Back home we'd call that a 'Buffet'. Smorgasbord? Seriously?

At that point it was back to the hotel, where I succumbed to drinking 'Thirsty Beaver' amber ale in my gitch in the hotel downloading photos and updating this report.

Tomorrow I need to get to Kaslo, so I decided to at least partially plan that route as well. Day two had been noticeably longer than I planned at ~800kms, so I'd have to kill some time riding the long way to use up the day. No better place than the Kootenays for that.

Looks Great! We just returned a couple weeks ago from Banff and Jasper National Parks and the Selkirk Loop. Kaslo was great...be sure to buy a ticket to see the Moyie. I doing a report on it right now. Keep it coming.

From Creston I continued to Salmo, crossing untold orange painted bridges as the highway meandered from one side of the river to another. No lunch to speak of, just snacked along the way.

The road north from Caslegar is a bit slow, and from Nelson to Balfour is even worse. Not sure if it was just due to it being a Sunday, but the traffic was brutal, it was hot, and I really didn't enjoy myself a whole lot.

Balfour to Kaslo is a terrific ride along the lake. I rolled into Kaslo well ahead of check-in, so I wandered around town, had a coffee, and relaxed. The folks at the Kaslo Hotel were more than happy to keep my gear company while I wandered around, and I checked in a little after three.

Not wanting to waste any riding time, I put on my squidly version of warm-weather gear and headed west on 31A to New Denver - they have an outdoor store, and I needed sunglasses and icebreaker shirts.

Valhalla Outfitters:

Nice lady inside helped me spend a bunch of money. I stuffed it all in my tank bag and noticed a haze over the lake. This would be the first of many smoke-obfuscated mountain views.

I stopped along 31A for a quick photo on the way home. God I love that road.